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Former head rips NHTSA for inactivity on GM recall

Joan Claybrook, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says federal investigators should probe the agency for failing to require GM to recall potentially faulty cars in 2007.

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Former head rips NHTSA for inactivity on GM recall

Federal safety officials commissioned a special probe into the crash of a 2004 Saturn Ion, similar to the 2006 shown, in which the airbags didn't inflate. The car is among 1.37 million GM has recalled for the airbag issue.(Photo: GM Wieck)

A former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking for a probe of why NHTSA knew as early as 2007 about a potentially fatal problem with General Motors ignition switches, but didn't demand a recall.

Now a safety activist, Joan Claybrook says the safety agency "failed to carry out the law" when it didn't force GM to fix the problem back then.

GM recalled 1.37 million cars in the U.S. last month because faulty ignition switches can shut off power to the front airbags. GM says it knows of 31 crashes and 13 deaths linked to the fault.

The switches unexpectedly can move from "run" into "accessory," killing power to the airbags and other systems. Heavy key rings can exacerbate the problem. GM says drivers awaiting the fix should be sure nothing is attached to their ignition keys.

NHTSA did not immediately respond to Claybrook's slap. But the agency in past cases has noted that it's easy, in hindsight, to say a problem should have been obvious, but at the time, the cases might have been so few that they were statistically inconsequential and wouldn't have attracted attention.

In the GM case, NHTSA paid extraordinary attention. It triggered three Special Crash Investigations, which are probes performed by outside investigators working under contract and reporting to NHTSA and the DOT.

Claybrook says that makes it even more unlikely that NHTSA should not have seen the problem clearly.

The agency commissioned the SCIs because it wanted to know why then-new "smart" airbags were failing to deploy in some GM crashes: The probes:

That report, by Calspan Research of Buffalo, said the ignition switch was in "accessory," and the front airbags did not deploy.

The report also noted that the driver was unbelted, impaired by alcohol, and accelerating under a wide-open throttle to 69 mph when the car slammed into trees and rolled.

NHTSA and GM met and discussed the crash in 2007, according to GM's own timeline.

•Nov. 26, 2006, into the October 2006 crash of a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt that killed Amy Beskau, 15, of Wisconsin, a front-seat passenger. A rear-seat passenger also died. The driver survived. None were wearing safety belts.

The SCI report in April 2007, by the Indiana University Transportation Research Center, said the switch was in "accessory," and the airbags didn't deploy.

The report noted, however, at least six complaints in the NHTSA database at the time about power being lost when the keys moved inadvertently to "accessory."

•March 15, 2004, into the crash of a 2004 Saturn Ion in Pennsylvania in January of 2004. No one was killed. The SCI report by Calspan noted that the crash was severe enough that the bags "probably" should have deployed, but didn't.

The position of the ignition switch wasn't noted, but Calspan reported anomalies in the data from the car's "black box" recorder consistent with a loss of engine power prior to the crash.